When foxes reach fifty years of age, they can transform into adult women. At a hundred years they can be beautiful girls, and perform sorcery. Some become husbands and enjoy carnal relations with women. They have awareness of matters extending up to a thousand li away. They are skilled at wielding noxious influence and charms, and can perplex and mislead people, stealing away their wisdom. At a thousand years they can receive the direct blessings of heaven, as a divine fox.
From Xuanzhongji.
Li Fang 李昉, et al., Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (Extensive Gleanings from the Era of Great Harmony), 10 vols (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), ix, 447.3652:
說狐
狐五十歲。能變化為婦人。百歲為美女。為神巫。或為丈夫與女人交接。能知千里外事。善蠱魅。使人迷惑失智。千歲即與天通。為天狐。
出玄中記
Thanks for the translation!
This is a second translation to English of this story. See Rempel’s translation from 2012: https://pedrempel.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/about-fox-spirits-in-the-taiping-guangji-or-extensive-records-of-the-taiping-era-first-published-978-ce/
No big differences, except for the charm-insects meaning.
Updated my Index.
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